Mental illness is a very isolating experience because many of the symptoms of mental illnesses, especially depression, attack the parts of the mind that interpret relationships, make meaningful connections, and experience joy. Often the effects of mental illness are not felt until a tragedy occurs, a suicide or another violent physical manifestation of the illness, when the impact radiates outwards through family, friends, and communities.

Four people enter a supermarket like any ordinary Tuesday. To their shopping trips they bring the baggage of their families, problems, and personalities. Soon they will share the connection of witnessing a violent attack but, for now, they wander the aisles and think to themselves.

In the centre of Town Hall’s iconic Victorian design, Belvoir and Co-Curious have erected an immense courtyard which will become a house, a prison, a playground, and a beach over nearly 50 years of four generations and two countries. Counting and Cracking is about family, culture, and a sense of self and the way these are torn apart or trodden down by politics, war, and fear.

A football club is collapsing under its own petty politics and incompetency. All the boys want the power and the glory but none of them have any idea about the work involved. David Williamson’s 1977 script is a precise representation of masculinity behind closed doors and the many pitfalls of the “every man for himself” mentality of hyper-masculine spaces. This reimagining from isthisyours? distills the drama to three female actors in an examination of the classic some 40 years later.

If you’ve ever had a tyrant boss, you’ve probably fantasised about something horrible happening to them, maybe on accident or maybe on purpose. For Claire and Solange, imagining the death of their domineering Madame and recreating it in detail has become a daily ritual of release and reclamation. This Jean Genet classic is about power and dominance in the luxury and suffocation of a woman’s dressing room.

After a much acclaimed run at La Boîte Theatre in Brisbane, Michelle Law’s debut play, Single Asian Female, is back at Belvoir St! It’s a show I would not miss after weeks of reading rave reviews on Twitter in 2017. Marketed as witty, fierce, and fresh, Single Asian Female promised to be properly contemporary Australian comedy. Get ready for another rave.